“The Bang-Bang Club is refreshing in its political and emotional forthrightness. At the end, the authors—wounded, hardened, defeated, victorious, chastened, sustained—reject both grandiosity and guilt, arriving instead at a hard-earned but sensible conclusion: ‘We had not personally suffered like some of the people we photographed, but neither were we responsible for their suffering—we had just witnessed it.’”

“They have written a compelling account of what it is like to be a war correspondent in one’s own country, regarded as traitors by the establishment (whose role in the violence they attempted to expose). They do not see themselves as heroes, their creed being to shoot pictures first and aid victims later. They suffer from the survivor’s guilt that dogs war correspondents, but with the number of villains in their story it is a wonder that they found the time to criticise themselves.”

“What this book does is highlight the extreme pressures and stress that those who make a career out of conflict photography must expect to endure.”—African Business

“This book is one that any student of Africa and especially South Africa, journalism, and photography will want to read.”

“Here is a fascinating look at how photo-journalism is done and the heavy toll it took on four young men covering South Africa’s bloody struggle for freedom. To read this book is to feel the early morning wake-up calls, the menace of a crowd getting ready to kill, the shame that can go with taking a prize-wining photograph of human misery. Parts of it will haunt you.”

“This powerful account intertwines the personal and professional lives of four journalists, known as the Bang-Bang Club, who helped bring the struggle for the end of apartheid in South Africa and other conflicts into the worldview. ... In this highly readable account, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Marinovich, who narrates the stories, and Silva, whose voice is represented in the third person, openly discuss this and other topics concerning the morality of journalism. . . . Libraries with collections on journalism or South Africa should seriously consider purchasing this engaging work, which raises many important questions.”

“This is a gripping account of the bloody action. Just as dramatic is the bitter inner conflict of those who risk their lives to bring us the news, their courage and commitment as well as their self-doubt.”—Booklist

“Balancing adventure-seeking bravado, professional competition, genuine friendship, and the stark fear of war coverage, the authors vividly describe a bloody revolution against white rule and how each came to terms with his own less-than-passive role in the violence.”

“If you have every wondered why some men need to live on the edge, this grippingly candid trip into the ‘dead zones’ of war journalism will thrill, shock and finally move you.”

“I have met Greg and João in ‘nasty places’ in both Africa and the Balkans, good men to be on a shitty road with. And suddenly, a great book reveals to me what they have gone through collectively and individually, in the midst of South Africa’s tragic history. At once, through their unique voice, I feel I’m in the car with them turning a corner onto a road that maybe we should not venture, that of history in the making: real, nasty, unavoidable and all too human.”

“The Bang-Bang Club succeeds where other, more self-important histories of the conflict in South Africa have failed.”